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There are people that you run across on the Planet or other places on the net that tend to come and go, people that leave impressions that are very favorable or sometimes unfavorable, and some that are utterly forgettable........and then there is Oedipus Tex.

When we first encountered "Oed" on these pages we discovered that he was a British citizen living in Texas and that he was a rabid Patriots fan. That alone will tell you that he was a somewhat atypical guy. After reading his words and thoughts many of us decided that he was, in fact, a very atypical guy.

In time reading his posts became, for me, like taking a narcotic stimulant that had no ill effects. He seemed to be an exceptionally bright guy whose intellect seemed to stand out even amongst a group of other pretty bright people. He was alternately charming, abrasive, challenging, thought-provoking, horny, sensitive and always had a highly developed sense of the absurd.

Whether it was his regaling us with an attempted seduction of Katie Holmes, starting threads dealing with diverse topics such as math, palindromes and haikus, the owls on his trashcan, creating the July Jollies thread or giving us a ringside seat to his personal life to solicit advice on his now-famous romantic dilemma, Oed always had something interesting to say, always something that was fresh and off-the-beaten-path.

Challenge him on a topic of which he was passionate about and you better have your chinstrap tightened securely, because he could make you look foolish in a hurry.

I was always impressed with the depth of his knowlege in such a wide variety of areas, including in particular his knowledge of the Catholic religion and religion in general.

It seemed seemed a little incongruous to me-- coming from such a young man given to the same, sometimes carnal, interests as most other young men, but that was Oed-- just when you thought you had him figured out he would surprise you.

Some people wondered if a guy like Oed, a man of British roots, could really understand a complex game like NFL football. People that wondered were soon convinced. He could X and O circles around just about anyone I have encountered. I believe it was the complexity of the game that originally attracted him to it and in a short time he developed a deep passion for the sport. A passion that even surprised him.

It was our good fortune that Tex had the excellent taste to select the New England Patriots as his adopted team and thereby find his way to our community on the web and ultimately become such a major presence on it. We should be pleased that he was rewarded with some historic, fantastic football over the last couple of years and also glad that watching the team that we follow and interacting with all of us here gave him a lot of pleasure.

He once described the people on this site as "intelligent and thoughtful" to his loved one(s) and that is a high compliment, indeed.

I remember reading a post dealing with his departure for a business trip to Thailand. He seemed to be quite optomistic and excited at the possibilites this presented and we shared his excitement and wished him well. It sounded like things were really going Oed's way.

It was not long after the devastating Tsunami hit that part of the world that I, that we began to worry about Oed, for he was now our friend. You worry about your friends whether you have met them in person or not and as far as we knew he was in the thick of it.

Days turned to weeks and it appeared that Oed had been one of the many thousands of people who did not survive the disaster. What could we do? We were left with the helpless feeling that there really was nothing you could do except hope and pray that he would, somehow, pull through.

Then, like a bolt-from-the-blue, his friend Flagg Wanderer reported that Oed was alive and in a Thai triage hospital and we all felt a tremendous sense of relief. Say what you want about the internet, but people were genuinely thrilled to hear that happy piece of news.

Soon, he himself had recovered sufficiently to report in and eventually told a harrowing story of his escape from what was only the biggest natural disaster in recorded history. It is not often I read something here that gives me goosebumps, but that post certainly did.

Not very long after we celebrated his survival from the Tsunami we got the very sad news that Oedipus Tex had passed away. He was only 27 years old.

Many people of influence are fortunate enough to have thier names associated with structures, organizations and societies as a way of leaving a legacy long after they are gone and while we here at the Planet can't give him anything fancy we have decided to rename and thereby dedicate this forum to him by calling it The Oedipus Tex Classic Thread Forum and it shall remain that way for as long as this website exists. May the threads it contains be worthy of the name.

To close I have included a brief quote from Tex that showed a little bit of his reflective side. It was from a thread where people were encouraged to tell of their favorite places in the world:

Quote:

#1 - Local for many of you: Long Nook Beach, Cape Cod (Oceanside), Massachusetts, on overcast day in October.

There is nothing, anywhere in the world that I've seen that can focus the mind and heart like walking along the dunes at Long Nook Beach. Everything that you have, and everything that you are is positively dwarfed in comparison to the majesty of the ocean and the dunes created by the unending wind and waves. The mist of the shore and the plants holding the sand for dear life work together to grip your heart at least as firmly.

Oed did not live a long life on this planet, nor on the planet Earth, but I like to believe that, although too brief, it was an exceptionally rich and full one. Nobody can ask for much more than that.

I also like to believe that he is now in a place that is far better than the one that he left behind and we can only hope that place is an awful lot like Long Nook Beach.

Since I'm fairly new here I never really had the chance to interact with oed, but I wandered into the classics section and was mesmerized by the "advice" thread detailing his romantic complications. His thoughtful struggle, his sense of loyalty, and the seer quality of his writing, which conveyed emotions not commonly expressed in a football chatoom, had me hanging on every word.

The Planet is poorer without him. I wish I had a chance to get to know him.

__________________
"An image haunts me:
proceeding across a battlefield,
my father now dead,
I am up front to draw the fire.
I look back,
and one of those I was to protect has fallen."

This is very sad; my condolences(sp??) to Oed's family and friends.
Since I am new here I did not know him;but he sounds like a man who loved life and lived his life to the fullest. I always wish at times like these I had the right words to say; but I never seem to.

Beautiful words, Hawg. My last post in 2005 before my long sabbatical was to welcome Oed back from Thailand, and today I decided to look up what he was up to, as he was always a favorite to read and I see this. I had no idea he had passed. He will be missed.

This guy sounds like a real smart, Salt-of-the-Earth type of guy. It's tragic that he was gone so soon. I look forward to reading his writings; from the looks of it he was one of a kind who was a great articulator.

I'm sorry it took me so long to get to this thread. I am in tears and at a total loss for words, but I can say this story has changed the way I will look at members posts forever. God Rest His Soul. I wish that I could have known him. and Hawg?.......... you are awesome!

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